First Emily de Molly Stamping...Lead Light Technique

Hello polish lovers!

I know, I know...bad blogger.  I have been doing my nails and taking photos but not editing or posting.  I am going to try to get back into the swing of things.  I really need to find some of the new polish that has been released for summer.  I didn't find many of the spring polishes spoke to me or were anything new.

Today I have a mani that I did a few weeks ago when I got my Emily de Molly plates from MessyMansion.  I am addicted!  I have 4 of the 5 available and I love them all.  This was plate EDM03.

I started with 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, which I will not show because I know I have posted about it before.  It is my favourite white, kind of dirty and gray for when you don't want it to be too bright.

I used Mundo de Unas black stamping polish...by the way I am loving all the stamping polishes of hers that I have tried so far...except peach...but that is for another post.

Once I stamped my image I used Sinful Colors GoGo Girl, China Glaze Keepin' it Teal, China Glaze Ride the Waves and OPI Need Sunglasses and a small dotting tool to fill in random spaces.

I have done a few more using this technique since then that I really enjoy as well.  I love the Frank Lloyd Wright-ness of this plate.  All the images are crisp and transfer perfectly from the stamper to the nail.

That is all for today, until next time, polish happy!

Long Overdue LVX First Impressions and Review

Hello polish lovers!

Sorry for the long absence but I was involved in some pretty intense renovations...they kind of tried to destroy my nails so they are shorter than I like them.

As the title says, this is a long overdue first impressions and review of LVX polishes.  I was at Marshalls one day and found some of these polishes, all from last year's Spring and Summer lines.  At first I only bought 2 because I had never found the brand to buy in store before and I didn't know what the quality was like.  I also don't think I could pay $16 for a single polish....it would have to be pretty damn amazing and last more than a week with no chipping for me to even think about it.  Fortunately the ones I found at Marshalls were only $7 which is much more do-able for me.  The first 2 I got were Celeste and Viridian.  (WARNING:  These photo's were taken months ago when my dominant hand was not usable so the clean up is not as good as normal, also please excuse the awkward hand position...really difficult for me to photograph my left hand.)

Celeste is a gorgeous soft grey'd out light blue...opaque in 2 coats and lasted on me for 4 days before it began to chip.  This was the first I tried and made me go back to Marshalls for as many other colours I could find.

Viridian, sorry the sunshine kind of washed it out and made it much brighter than it is IRL, this is a gorgeous medium toned green, the kind that my camera kind of looks at and cries about, could not get a colour accurate photo to save my life.  This was also opaque in 2 coats.

On my next trip to Marshalls I found Modena, Citrine, Azalea, Chambord and Indigo Bleu.

Azalea, pretty pink based lilac, similar to Pantone's Radiant Orchid colour of the year.  This had the best formula of the great formula's and was opaque in 1 coat.

Chambord is a deep raspberry colour, opaque in 2 coats and very pigmented.

Citrine is the only one of the bunch with a weak formula but it is a yellow...a mustard-y yellow but yellow none the less.  This was 3 coats to become opaque but applied smoothly like all the other colours.

Indigo Bleu was just as pigmented as the other colours but stained quite badly on removal.  You have to make sure not to re-use your cotton round or you will never get it off your cuticles.  The gorgeous purple/blue depending on lighting is totally work the extra mess though.  This is also 2 coats.

Modena is the last swatch I have for you.  An amazing bright poppy red.  2 coats, clean up was difficult, this one stains worse than Indigo Bleu, and not just your cuticles but nails too.  Definitely need to double up on base coat before I use this one again, but sooo pretty, and I am not a lover of reds.

I was later able to find Fantom, a white, and Cerulean, a royal blue at Winners, but have not swatched these yet.

Overall I was incredibly impressed with the quality and pigmentation of these polishes and hope that I manage to find more on other outings.

That is all for today.

Until next time, polish happy!

St. Paddy's Mani

Hello polish lovers!  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

So I had a pretty major break in my middle nail of my swatching hand a few weeks ago and I have been nursing it ever since...unfortunately it decided to break all the way back to the start of my free edge and I got fed up and cut it right down.  So you know what that means, awkward photos using my non dominant hand(which means no freehand art) and slightly crappy clean up until my middle nail grows out enough to not be a tiny mini nubbin.  There will also be a few posts of mani's I did weeks ago, so if you see righty making an appearance, that is why.

On to my St. Paddy's day mani.  I started with 3 coats of Sally Hansen Triple Shine, Kelp Out.  If you are interested you can see my original review here.

I then got out my Bundle Monster plates and used BMH04 and BMH05 with Klean Color Metallic Yellow and Konad black for my stamping.

I decided to go with a double accent since I wanted more of the green to show.  I especially love my index finger, the metallic yellow really caught the light and added extra interest.

That is all for today but I will be back soon.

Until then, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 27: Pointillism

Hello polish lovers!

Last post of the night, and the shortest, because I am tired and fighting a bad headache.

For the Pointillism prompt I decided, of course, to use my dotting tools.  I did not want to do anything representative, and so went to the basics and did overlapping dots.

I started with a base of 2 coats of Barry M Papaya(can you tell I want summer to come already?).

I then used a small dotting tool and SHID Lightening to dot all over my nails.

I repeated with SHID Lickety-Split Lime leaving an area bare.

And again with SHID Mint Sprint, moving out slightly again.

And lastly with Barielle Shades Girls Night Out, moving out again.

I then topped with SV(because I learned my lesson last time).

That is all for today(finally).

I will be back tomorrow with my final installment of this challenge, Art Nouveau.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 23: Oils

Hello polish lovers!

Its another double up day, I have recently come down with a cold and it is just not making me want to do nail art much....mostly because it is impossible to blow your nose with wet polish.

Anyway, yesterdays prompt was Oils, difficult to do with polish since polish has a lot of the opposite characteristics of oil paint.  Most difficult is the differences in drying times and the difficulty to create brushstrokes.  So for my interpretation I did not want to deal with brushstrokes and used, instead, Jackson Pollack as my inspiration.

I started with a base of 2 coats Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

Once this was dry I got out a variety of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes, (Lightening, Rapid Red, Cobalt Blue) a new Kleancolor, Grass Green, and my Konad Black.  I decided to stamp for this and used BM416 making sure to stamp each colour in a different direction so that the overlap was random.

I quite like this effect, this is the first time I have stamped over a stamp multiple times.  I like that each nail is random and the colours almost appear to be fighting.

That is all for this prompt, but I will be back in a few with today's prompt of Abstract.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 20: Pop Culture

Hello polish lovers!

I know this is late but you are going to be getting 3 posts tonight so I am caught up for the new week.

Thursday's prompt was Pop Culture and I immediately thought about Pop Art, which is an art movement that was heavily influenced by Pop Culture.  So for my mani I decided to go for comic book nails.

I started with 2 coats of China Glaze Electric Pineapple, a bright chartreuse yellow.  Once this dried I got out my stamping plates and Barry M Greenberry.

My thumb and pinkie are from MoYou London Pro Collection 07 and the rest of my nails are from a MASH set, I don't know why MASH has their lettering on their plates backwards, you end up with them backwards on your nails as well which looks weird.

Anyway that is all for this post but I will be back as soon as I edit the rest of my pics for the next 2 prompts.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 19: Game Night

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my Game Night nails for you.  So in my house game night is either Scrabble or Trivial Pursuit.  Since we played both of those games on Family Day, they were particularly fresh in my mind.

I chose Trivial Pursuit nails for this prompt.

I chose China Glaze First Mate for my main colour, since it is similar to the background of the game board, and a 1 coater, and I am still in love with it.  My ring finger is 3 coats of China Glaze Oxygen a cream jelly formula.

Once this was dry I added striping tape to create my pie piece shapes and used OPI Pink Friday, Barry M Turquoise, OPI Need Sunglasses?, Orly Prince Charming, Barielle Shades Central Park and Color Club Wham! Pow! to fill in the different categories of questions.  I went with the original colours as apposed to the new ones, the have replaced brown with purple now.

That is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my Pop Culture nails.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 17: Animation

Hello polish lovers!

Sorry I didn't post yesterday but it was Family Day here in Canada(Ontario to be exact) and we all spent the day together.

So yesterday's prompt was Animation and I took the opportunity to try out some nails that I have been wanting to do since last summer....Adventure Time nails!

They definitely did not turn out the way I wanted them to but I don't think they were that bad for a first attempt.  They all started of a base of OPI Alpine SNow.

I think LSP turned out the best but I will list the polishes that I used here for you:
LSP-OPI A Grape Fit!, and Need Sunglasses with a black striper.
Finn-OPI My Vampire is Buff and a black striper.
Jake-OPI The "IT" Color and black and white stripers.
Princess Bubblegum-Color Club Flamingo, China Glaze In a Lily Bit and the Grass is Lime Greener, OPI Need Sunglasses and a black striper.

That is all for now but I will be right back with my Sci-Fi nails.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 14: Sweets

Hello polish lovers!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Today marks the half way point in this challenge, Yay!

Today's prompt is Sweets, very appropriate for the date.  So I decided to create Valentine Message nails.

Dreaded thumb shot.  So from pinkie down through the nails the colours used are: Barielle Shades Joytini, LimeCrime Once in a Blue Mousse, Orly Mint Mojito, OPI Pink Friday, and LimeCrime Crema de Lemon.  This is 2 coats of each polish except for Joytini, which needed 3.

Once this dried, I again reached for the Revlon Parfumarie in Bordeaux(so good for Valentine's stamping) and BM425 for my text.

Even though these are pretty simple, I received numerous compliments on these nails while I was at work.  Sometimes simple is good.

That is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my next prompt, Round and Square.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 8: Still Life

Hello polish lovers!

I told you I would be back!  So lets get started...I began with 2 coats of China Glaze Lemon Fizz, a soft butter-cream yellow(I have a few by different brands that look to be similar colours if anyone would like a comparison).

Once this was dry I got out my trusting dotting tools and a detail brush and got started.

The vase is Color Club Pucci-licious, the stripe is Color Club Silver Lake, the leaves are Orly Mint Mojito(light green) and OPI Jade is the New Black(dark green) and the roses are Barielle Shades Euphoric(lighter raspberry) and OPI Visions of Love.

I was kind of going for a Van Gogh look for the vase of flowers but its hard to make nail polish look like brushstroke-y oil paint.  I really love how the full roses look, better than the buds in the vase.  The last time I did roses I used a small dotting tool and dabbed in C's while this time I put a dot of the dark colour in the center of the wet polish and used my thinnest dotting tool to swirl the two colours around.

The roses are my favourite freehand that I have done recently, and I cannot wait to show you my mani for Camoflage...but that is later in the week.

I will be back tomorrow with my Inner Geek nails...I will give you a hint...EXTERMINATE!!!

Until then, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 7: Primary

Hello polish lovers!

I know I didn't post yesterday but I was just feeling like being lazy, so I edited the photos but didn't post.  So this is going to be short and sweet since I will be posting again soon.

Today's prompt was Primary, and that is exactly what I did.  I started by painting one third of my nails Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening, the middle third Formula X Omni, and the final third Formula X Flashy.  They are all bright primary colours, and this reminds me of a child beach ball.

For my stamping I used Essie No Place Like Chrome and the crown image from the MM05 plate.

I didn't realize until I was editing the photos that I stamped this upside down but I kind of like it that way.  This mani reminds me of a Renaissance Fair with a jousting match.

That is all for now but I will be back with my Still Life mani soon.

Until then, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 6: Neon

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my mani for the challenge prompt Neon.  I love neon! Especially for summer, my toes, and usually fingers are dowsed in neon from June till September.  I am always looking for another good neon to add to my collection.

I am showcasing 2 of my newer neon's today.  I started with a base of Orly Glowstick, your quintessential highlighter yellow.

This has been colour corrected because my camera took one look, said AHHH!!! and ran in the other direction, like a little baby, from the neon awesomeness.  This very close to real life though.  I love the Orly neon colours, I have Melt Your Popsicle as well, awesome traffic cone orange! This is 2 coats over a base of 1 coat of OPI Alpine Snow.

Once this was dry I got out my dotting tool and used Alpine Snow, again as a base, dotting randomly across my nails.  When this dried I went over the dots with Models Own Bubblegum.  I have found with neon, if you don't use white base the colour below will leech and change the colour you are placing over your base.

 This is still looking slightly orange, again my camera's fault, cannot handle the neon.

That is all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with the Day 7 prompt of Primary.

Until then, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 5, Contrast

Hello polish lovers!

Quick Day 5 challenge post, this was a bit of a fail for me.  I was trying a polish that I haven't used with stamping before...and don't think I will again.

I started with a base for 3 coats of Ciate Loop the Loop, very streaky, non-self-leveling, but a pretty butter-cream colour.

So the colour that I went with for the stamping is Sephora by OPI in Caffeine Fix, looks brown in the bottle but a thin coat shows purple.  That is what I was hoping for when I stamped.  I used MASH plates 38 and 50 for this design.  I wanted both the colours and the images to contrast, unfortunately Caffeine Fix didn't stamp cleanly and also smudged when I top coated, which I very seldom have happen, but does occasionally occur.

Disappointing, definitely, but stamping is a learning process.  It stamped decently well on the thin lines of the plants, so that is something to keep in mind.

Anyway, that is all for today, I will be back tomorrow with my Day 6 mani, Neon.

Until then, polish happy!

33 DC Day 33 Freestyle...The End is Nigh!

Hello polish lovers!

I am back with my last mani for the 33 DC!  Yay!  So today I decided to go freestyle although it is influenced by a number of photos found by the help of Google when looking for bee nails.

I began with a base of 2 coats of Lime Crime Crema de Lemon.  This is one of the best yellows I have ever used.  The formula is great, completely opaque in 2 coats with now streaking, and it self levels.  I also really like the colour itself, it is bright but not neon and yet still creamy.

Once this was coated in SV and completely dry I used BM422 for the honey combs and BM401 for the bees  with Konad black.  The swoops are freehanded with my Nubar black striper.

I really liked this final product.  It is definitely something I will do a variation of in the summer.

Of course I had to matte it and I wore it this way for about 4 days before I removed it.  Love it!

That is all for today, I will be back on Sunday with the next Christmas Challenge.

Until then, polish happy!

Falling for Nail Art: Baked Goods

Hello nail polish lovers!

Today I have my Falling for Nail Art Challenge with the theme Baked Goods.  I really had to stop myself from using my apple pie image for this one but I somehow managed to restrain myself.

For this challenge I started with a base of 1 coat of an unnamed Color Club lavender/periwinkle that I think is Pucci-licious, based on swatches.  I loved adding to my Color Club collection but not having names on the bottles is a giant pain in the ass.  If you think this is a different CC colour please let me know, also this colour is slightly less blue in real life.

This colour must have some neon pigment in it because it dried slightly matte.  Once the base was dried I started to add my design, of a cupcake, of course.  I used Lime Crime's Crema de Lemon for the wrapper, and then used a yellow striper for the shadows.  The frosting is China Glaze White on White with yellow and red stripers for the sprinkles.

I added the SV too early, since I am more used to applying it over stamping, and ended up with the red striper smudging and bleeding into the white.  Except for that I was actually quite pleased with how this turned out.

I have been doing so much nail art between the challenges that I have been leaning towards more plain nails, so I wanted to show you one of my favourites from last week.

The base is another of the unnamed Color Clubs, I think it is either Look Book or Style Icon, and this is 3 coats of the deep jelly like red that is the closest to oxblood that I have.  The studs are small gold rounds from the Born Pretty Store and the reason that one of them looks silver is because I took this photo after a day at work and apparently I wore through the top coat and took the colour coating off that one stud.  I really enjoyed how simple and sophisticated this mani was and I think it totally appropriate for Autumn.

That is all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with my next 33DC mani.

Until then, polish happy!

Falling for Nail Art: Fireside

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my Fireside mani for the other challenge I am doing at the moment, the Falling for Nail Art Challenge.  The only thing that I could think of when I saw the theme for today was fire itself, so that is what I did.



As I said in my previous post I completely forgot to take pictures of my base without my freehand on it, which is unfortunate, because it is gorgeous, I will be sure to post again with it sometime.  I am on a bit of a Color Club kick because I just got 18 new colours and I want to test them all out.  The color I chose for my background is another unnamed but I have decided based on swatches that it is Apollo Star, an antique gold that is opaque in one careful coat(another one coat-er! I am in heaven).  Once this was dry I dug out stripers in Yellow, Red, and Neon Orange and created a reverse waterfall to create my fire.

Sorry Blogger is doing the same thing to my photos again, this is getting ridiculous! UPDATE: fixed.

At lease this time it didn't change the colours on my nails but for some reason it is making them look much lower quality than they are, I will have to look into this.

Anyway, that is all for now,  until next time, polish happy!

Falling for Nail Art Challenge: Spiced Up

Hello polish lovers!

I am back with my Falling for Nail Art Challenge for today's theme of Spiced Up.  I got a little stymied on this mani so I decided to use spicy colours and try my second attempt at a tape mani.  This time I used Scotch tape instead of striping tape and didn't apply the tape until later in the day after wearing the base colour on its own.

My base for this mani is 2 coats of OPI's Bogota Blackberry, a gorgeous cranberry colour.  Once this was totally dry I cut pieces of Scotch tape in a variety of sizes for the parts I wanted to keep cranberry.

The yellow stripe I did first is Barielle Shades Lemondrops, the orange is Essie's Fear or Desire, and the red is China Glaze's Roguish Red.  This mani went way better than my first tape mani(that was a disaster).

I love how bright and spicy these colours are.  This photo is a little more colour accurate but my camera had problems trying to get the colours properly.

That's all for today, but I will be back on Friday(if not before).

Until then, polish happy!

Hallow e'en Challenge Day 8: Hallow e'en!

Happy Hallow e'en polish lovers!

I love Hallow e'en!  Tonight when I get home from work I will definitely be watching Rocky Horror Picture Show(a yearly tradition), I already watched Hocus Pocus yesterday(Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker as witches? Yes please!).

So here is the mani I am rockin' on this most awesome holiday.

I started with 1 coat of OPI's Alpine Snow for my base.  Once that had dried I created a gradient using Alpine Snow, Essie's Fear or Desire, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightning.  Over that I put 2 coats of Fantasy Makers Glow in the Dark polish(I tried to get the China Glaze Ghoulish Glow but my Sally's was all sold out).  I then coated this in SV and let dry for a very long time before I did my stamping.

I used Bundle Monster BMH07 for the Trick or Treat image and BMH06 for the jack o'lanterns.

This does glow in the dark but it works best if you use a flashlight to charge the polish, and it doesn't stay very long.  But I enjoy the effect.

That is all for today, I will be back tomorrow with the 33DC Two Pattern mani.

Until then, have a Happy Hallow e'en, and polish happy!

Falling for Nail Art Day 8: Sweet Treats

Hello polish lovers!

I must say I loved this mani.  I am totally going to be rockin' it on Hallow e'en.  Here's how I started.

I started with a base of 2 coats of Milani's White on the Spot, not a great formula, I only use it because I keep it in my box by my feet and it is more easily accessible than my other whites.  From there I used a makeup sponge and created a white, orange and yellow gradient using the same Milani polish, Essie's Fear or Desire and Sally Hanson's Insta-Dri in Lightning.  I love this gradient! It looks exactly like candy corn, which I hate with a fire-y passion.  I would much rather wear it on my nails than eat a piece.  I coated this in SV, like always and waited for it to dry.  Then I did this:

All the candy goodness you could ever want, stamped all over your nails!  For this stamping I used the Bundle Monster BM306 and Wet n' Wild's Black Creme.  I did this stamping before I got my Konad black so when I do this for Hallow e'en it will be much deeper and more crisp than here.

That is all for this post but I will be back in a little bit with my 33DC 3D nails.

Until then, polish happy!

Falling For Nail Art Challenge: The Great Pumpkin

Long time no see, polish lovers;)

This post is The Great Pumpkin post!  I must start by saying that when I was growing up Hallow e'en was not complete without watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! so Yay!

I loved doing this mani!  I started with a base coat of Wet n' Wild's Ebony Hates Chris on all my fingers(love this black, opaque and not streaky in one coat).  I then created the shapes I would turn into pumpkins in OPI's Alpine Snow, waited for that to dry and then went over it with one coat of Essie's Fear or Desire.  You will probably see this colour in a lot of my Hallow e'en mani's because I think it is the perfect pumpkin orange.

Once Fear or Desire was dry I used a Art Club's Primary Yellow striper to create highlights and a mix of Fear or Desire and black for the low lights.  I used my Nubar black striper to paint the jack o'lantern's face and China Glaze's In the Limelight for the grass and stems of the pumpkins.  Everything is topped in SV.

I am really happy with how the freehand worked out for this mani, and I may have to re-do it closer to Hallow e'en.

That is all for today, I will be back tomorrow with my next Hallow e'en Challenge for Crumpets Nail Tarts.

Until then, polish happy!